Five Minutes to Midnight
by Fearless-Elegance
Summary: The clock has been set.


_.:.[.//.Twenty Minutes to Midnight.\.[.:._

_"It becomes more difficult to leave you here with each visit.." Gaara's sonorous timbre broke the silence filling the Konoha bedroom. A lithe form shifted, skin pressed up against skin, a small smile forming on a blond's pink mouth at the friction._

_"I know," Naruto replied quietly, curling up into the compact build of the sand ninja. "But Tsunade doesn't think I should be…well, relocating because of my training and--"_

_"There will be a time when the decision no longer rests with your Hokage," the young leader promised straightforwardly. He slipped one arm around the slender waist of the boy, pulling him closer._

_Holding._

_Keeping._

_Possessing._

_"Have you ever read Helen of Troy..? Temari read it to me once, long ago...I found it's moral appealing."_

_Oblivious to the story, blue eyes blinked upward to lock with the mint colored orbs of the Kage. "What happened?"_

_"The beauty of one sparked the deaths of many." Moving his mouth to hover above the pale, creamy skin of Naruto's neck, he nipped at the clean flesh._

_A moan broke free._

_The demon in Gaara stirred hungrily once more._

_"There will be a time," the red head begin, letting his tongue dip into the hollow point of the boy's clavicle. "When I can no longer leave you..." He shifted his body, moving to rest atop Naruto's trembling figure. Instinctively, the kitsune's knees parted so that Gaara's lower body could fit snuggly between his legs._

_Someone shifted slightly._

_Another moan._

_The Kazekage growled, resisting the urge to pound into the boy recklessly._

_"When I can no longer leave you," he repeated covetously. "Sunagakure and Konoha will come to blows...you are my Helen of Troy, Naruto...and because of you….there will be war..."_

_With great effort, Naruto lifted his head upward to press his mouth into Gaara's. He fancied - as the sand manipulators tongue peeked out from behind parched lips to caress his - that he caught a glimpse of dark hair moving away from his bedroom window._

_The clock had been set._

* * *

_[.x..T'E'N.//.M'I'D'N'I'G'H'T'S.[.To..Midnight[.x._

_A fragile body slammed into hardwood table, crashing against the glass ornaments resting atop the varnished wood._

_A crash._

_Small mewls of pain._

_"You SMELL like him," Gaara shouted, gripping Naruto by his collar and pulling him off the table. "Why do you smell like him?!"_

_"I don't know," Naruto replied docilely. He knew that when Gaara, or better yet, when Shukaku took hold like this, it was best to not fight back. The less resistance, the lesser the extent of his injuries. He couldn't bring himself to hurt Gaara anyhow. Though his words were filled to the brim with hatred and anger, his eyes held the smallest traces of sorrow. Sorrow at the thought of Naruto holding someone else in higher esteem. Sorrow at once again being rejected by his main source of human emotion._

_"You've been around that bastard, haven't you?"_

_"No, Gaara."_

_"You love him."_

_"I….don't." He chocked as he answered, and prayed neither Gaara nor Shukaku caught it. A few moments passed, and he hadn't been thrown into another piece of furniture within the Kage's home. He figured he was in the clearing._

_"The why do you carry his scent?" Gaara asked once more, the pale green irises dilated as he snarled the question._

_"I….don't know.." And he truly didn't._

_Grunting, he pulled Naruto forward, wrapping his arms around the shivering, bruised form tightly. "He thinks he can have you...he thinks he'll have you.."_

_He nuzzled into the taller males body, his breathing quick and uneven, a faint throbbing in his head from where he'd hit it on the corner of the table._

_"Tell me you don't love him..."_

_"I don't love him, Gaara.." He could still hear the rumbling of Shukaku as Gaara tightened his hold on him, could almost feel the evil spilling through his lovers pores._

_Such rage._

_Jealously._

_Hatred._

_"I'm going to keep my promise, Naruto..." The Kazekage slipped his hands up the boy's loose fitting shirt, fingertips slipping along warm, honey touched skin. "Midnight is when I'll come for you...when it's least expected." He chuckled, relishing the soft sound that exited Naruto's parted lips. "But I won't tell you when...but you'll know.."_

_It became official then. Naruto knew for sure._

_Gaara was intent on keeping him._

_Tick._

_Tock._

* * *

_-[..x..-.Five Minutes to Midnight.-[..x..-_

_"Do you want to stay with him?"_

_Standing on the balcony outside his apartment door. The sun had set hours ago, few people roamed the streets making this the perfect hour for a private talk outdoors. Shifting his blue irises to the brunette crouched on the banister of the balcony, he blinked. "I don't know, Sasuke.."_

_"It doesn't matter. It's not your choice anyway," he replied matter of factly, reaching back to finger his hiltless sword._

_Naruto's eyes narrowed to mere slits of blue. "Don't speak of me as if I'm a piece of meat, you damn--" Cut off as the Uchiha leaned down to kiss him, he pulled away from the show of affection._

_"He isn't going to have you. Not if I have anything to do with it."_

_"Hm.." He looked outward at the horizon once more. Perhaps it was his imagination, or his mind playing tricks on him do the anxiety he felt, but he could distinctly hear the quiet ticking of a clock nearby._

_"How do you know he's coming for you tonight?" Sasuke asked for the hundredth time that day._

_"...I can feel it. That's how."_

_"You could be wrong.."_

_As if simply to spite Sasuke's words, the rumbling sound of shifting earth silenced them both. Naruto turned his head to follow the noise, the fine whiskers along his cheeks shivering as wisps of far off chakra graze them, watched a menacing shadow moving into the village from the east._

_He froze._

_Sasuke stood._

_"Sand.." Naruto whispered, the shadow growing ever larger._

_"I guess you were right. It starts tonight." Sasuke leaped off the banister, landing on a rooftop nearby and giving Naruto one more look. "Helen of Troy, eh?"_

_"That's what he considered me..." Naruto's passive face watched the brunette's movements._

_"He's not too far off either. Can't believe you're going to start a war, dobe.."_

_The blond broke out into a gentle smile. A knowing smile. Slightly twisted and obscene._

_Somewhere off in the dark, a clock struck midnight._

* * *

_**A/N: I really don't know where I was going with this. It's been so long since I've written anything, and I think it shows with this piece of crap. This is my first fic in years, and I guess it's my attempt at trying to gain my skills back - if ever I had any - before I venture off into a multi-chapter work. Please review. It helps. A lot.**_


End file.
